Try the "Cockersdale Watercourses and Mills" thread harrym1byt. Unfortunately most of the photos seem to have corrupted, but there are 28 pages of speculation, walk reports, and general waffle on the area and its past.

Thanks Jim, my initial search failed to find the very long and interesting thread.

My curiosity stemmed from the fact that in the late 1950's, in my early teens, myself and friends would sometimes cycle up there and camp in those woods. We would go up Whitehall Road to the Woodcock, turn right along Back Lane, then there would be a rough track falling down to the left passable in a car, between some bungalows. The track ended in a bit of clearing, then there was a narrow track down from the clearing, which led to a flat spot near the beck with a spring - that was where we camped, near the spring. The spring bed was a bright orange colour, though the water appeared very clear and cool and tasted fine. Collecting water, was a matter of dipping the container in, without disturbing the sediment on the bottom. I was also told it was good for you. Friends would often pester me to allow them along on the camping adventure.

The woods had a rough path following the side of the beck, following it to the north, then a second path higher up the valley side, which eventually joined the beck side path. The far end of the path ended from memory at Tong LaneI don't recall it being possible to follow the beck to the south at all. Since camping there, I always wondered about its history.

I lived at the west end of Cow Close Road from 1949-56, and we used to walk up the old pack horse paved way (part of which was called Billey Lane) to about the mid point of Back Lane, and then along the path you mention (or turn right along Back Lane to Tong Road and access the woods from that end) for an afternoon of wandering through the woods or paddling in the beck. That and later visits were what led me to want to find out more about the area in 2012.

An uncle, or who I called uncle Don, a friend of my father had a car repair garage around there, now long since gone. Somewhere around where Gamble Lane is now. It was not far from a quarry or at least a stone cutting company. I was very young, so my memory is not very clear on the location. I wonder if you might remember it Jim? The garage was an absolute rough shambles of a rough shed, up what seemed a rough farm track. Don had a very jovial Irish guy working as a mechanic or a labourer.

Don't remember the garage. The motor bike scrambling would probably have been the Post Hill course used by (I think) the West Leeds Motor Club. I believe they still have events there, but not I think up the very steep climb straight up the "nose" of the hill. There were a couple of quarries near what is now the Ring Road/Pudsey Road roundabout, one at Hough End and the other at Park Spring. Was the latter one that used by "Mary Harrisons"?

Thanks, that rings a bell. Park Spring and Mary Harrisons - I remember going there to install something as a young electrical apprentice when I started work. Post Hill also rings a bell, my father was mad keen on scrambling, so we were regulars there.

The garage was well off the beaten track, so no surprise at all that you never came across it. My father would go up there to borrow tools and just to socialise. All I remember was that all three were in the same sort of area.